Cain's Law (Cowboys on the Edge Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

Tank murmured. “Can I say she’s hot—even in those ugly clothes?”
    Cain grunted. “How about you take a turn around the back of the station? Make sure we don’t have any company.” With that, he strode toward the front where Rita was once again handling dispatch. After he’d sent her back to interrogation with a live-scan reader, he set the bankroll on the desktop, placed his hat on the rack behind the desk, and settled into her chair to listen to the radio traffic. The fire still raged. Teams combed the surroundings. The fire chief had called for his wife, the mayor, to gather more volunteers to deliver coffee and snacks.
    And an arson team out of Austin was flying into the Cutter family’s air strip. Cain knew the FBI might be roped in, too, since the arsonist was probably involved with organized crime.
    They’d be all over Carina. He thought about how she’d looked in her dirty, purloined clothing, sitting small and lost across the table. Without second-guessing the urge, he reached for the phone and dialed a number.
    “First a call from the chief, now the station?” Sherry Thacker, the fire chief’s wife, didn’t bother prefacing her statement with a hello.
    “You already leave for the cabin fire?”
    “Still at City Hall, waiting on doughnuts and cookies. Why?”
    “The girl we pulled from the house. She needs clothes and shoes.”
    There was silence, followed by, “Poor thing. Anyone similar in size you can think of?”
    Cain cringed then rasped, “My ex.”
    “Well, she’s long gone,” she drawled. “But I know someone. Give me a few.”
    She hung up without another word, and Cain stared at the receiver before hanging it up. He was glad she belonged to Blake. Sherry was a pushy woman. And quick to anger. The whole town had walked on eggshells the months she and Blake had been separated. And all over a reporter who’d been more interested in the mayor than she had been the fire chief.
    Cain shook his head. Women were a mystery.
    “I got ’er done,” Rita said beside him. “She’s clean. Not even a parking ticket.”
    Relief rushed through him. Completely out of proportion with the situation. The woman might not have any arrests, but she ran in a dangerous crowd. “Thanks,” he said, pushing up from the chair. He tapped the bankroll. “I’ll need you to count this, and then make a list of the numbers on each bill to turn over to the FBI. Send the mayor on back when she gets here.”
    Rita’s eyebrows shot up, but she didn’t say a word as she took her seat in front of the dispatcher’s desk. Rita had worked the night shift for years. A widow without kids, she considered the sheriff and the deputies her boys. “Now, don’t be fallin’ for those puppy dog eyes…”
    Cain grunted and felt his cheeks begin to redden. He strode to Deputy Roman Perez, who stood to the side of one of the front windows, staring through the narrow space between the frame and the blinds.
    At Cain’s approach, he straightened away. “It’s quiet. Really think he’d try to storm the station?”
    “I don’t.” Cain shook his head. “But he’s not wrapped too tight. He tried to muscle a cop off the road.”
    “What’s her story?” he asked, pointing his chin toward the corridor where Carina waited in interrogation.
    “Ms. Black was his girlfriend. She left him after relieving him of a big wad of cash.” He didn’t want to talk about her anymore. Certainly didn’t want to relate the parts of her story he was still churning over. “I’m doing a search on her boyfriend. You keep a sharp eye.”
    His lips twitched. “Yes, boss.”
    As he walked away, Cain shook his head. He wasn’t muscling for Josh’s job. He could keep it. Cain preferred patrolling. Liked being on his own in his car, keeping the peace and to himself.
    He took a seat at a desk with a view to the front of the station, typed a quick transcript of his interview, and shot it via email to the sheriff. After he’d completed a